Mayor Says He Urged Trade Center Memorial Chief Not to Quit

By WINNIE HU

Published: May 30, 2006

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday that he urged Gretchen Dykstra to stay on as president and chief executive of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation shortly before she resigned last Friday.

''She had said to me she felt that people were trying to push her out,'' the mayor said yesterday afternoon before marching in a Memorial Day parade in Whitestone, Queens. ''She was thinking about leaving and my advice to her was, don't.''

Ms. Dykstra resigned last week amid a public outcry over the spiraling cost of the memorial, the memorial museum and the preparations for the entire site, which is now nearly $1 billion, and sharp criticism by Mr. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki over what they said they saw as the foundation's failure to raise enough money so far to pay for it.

Calling Ms. Dykstra ''a very competent woman,'' Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday that she could have done the job, and that her departure from the foundation would further complicate matters.

''I don't know that her leaving is going to solve any problems,'' the mayor said. ''Quite the contrary, it just makes it more complex because you don't have her.''

Mr. Bloomberg's strong endorsement of Ms. Dykstra differed markedly from his lukewarm response to a similar question during a news conference three weeks earlier. When asked whether Ms. Dykstra should resign, the mayor responded, ''You've got to ask the foundation what kind of a job she's doing.''

Ms. Dykstra, 57, led the foundation for 13 months, and previously served as a city commissioner of consumer affairs in the Bloomberg administration. She is also a former president of the Times Square Business Improvement District (now the Times Square Alliance).

Ms. Dykstra, reached yesterday by phone, said that she called Mr. Bloomberg last week, and that they had engaged in ''a long and full conversation'' about the memorial, the museum, the foundation's fiduciary responsibility and what she described as ''the lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities.''

There has been tension between the foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation over their respective roles in the planning and design of the memorial.

Ms. Dykstra said she was thankful for the mayor's confidence in her ability to lead the foundation.

''The conversation was useful, the mayor's support was welcomed, and I certainly hope that my resignation does not make a complicated situation even more complicated,'' she said.

Ms. Dykstra declined to comment on whether anyone had tried to push her out of the foundation.

Lynn Rasic, the foundation's vice president for public affairs, said yesterday that the foundation was sorry to accept Ms. Dykstra's resignation. ''But we remain committed to our mission of building a fitting and affordable memorial and museum,'' she said. ''The foundation, under the leadership of its tremendous board and with the support of the governor and the mayor, is confident that the remaining funds can be raised once the cost issues are resolved. We are encouraged that this process is well under way.''

In recent weeks, Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly chastised the foundation's fund-raising efforts, which he contends should have started sooner and been its central focus all along. He reiterated that view yesterday.

''I thought the foundation should focus on raising money,'' he said. ''I've thought they should have been doing it for years, since they were created. It gets harder and harder as the time gets greater from when the terrible event of 9/11 took place.''

The foundation's efforts to raise funds from private sources have stalled at around $130 million, leaving a significant shortfall, even with more than $200 million in public money. While Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged that raising private money was hard work, he stressed that it had to be done.

''People say you've got to have a final design before you raise monies,'' he said. ''I've never believed that. All of the fund-raising I've ever done, you have a conceptual scheme and then you go out and show people and say, 'It's going to be something like this depending on how much money we can make, what the final costs come in at, whether or not there's a better idea down the road.' ''